Black and grey ink drawing of a stag, wolf and bear heads stacked one above another, shown as a realistic tattoo design on a white background.

Enlarged with AI from a smaller original

Stag, wolf and bear stacked heads

Realism · Black and grey · Flash

A realistic ink drawing of three animal heads stacked vertically: a stag with large antlers at the top, a wolf in the middle and a bear at the base. The heads are rendered with fine hatching and stippled shading that shows fur texture and facial detail. The design is shown in black ink on a plain white background with no body or colour.

Realism Stag Deer Antler Wolf Bear Animal

Find an artist for this

Take it to an artist as a reference. A good artist will make it yours rather than copy someone else's tattoo.

A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

Dear Ada, the laird's man collected the plate on Tuesday, and I thought he might weep when he unwrapped it. Three heads stacked like the pillars of a chapel: the stag at the top with his tines running off the edge of the sheet, the wolf beneath him with his ears laid back as if he has heard something in the hall, and the bear at the base, broad and patient, carrying the whole weight without complaint. Mr Ferrier insisted every hair be worked by hand with a steel nib, so I sat six weeks over those muzzles until my wrist would not straighten.

Keep reading

The trouble was the bear's eyes. Mr Ferrier said they looked borrowed, and he was right. I had drawn them from a book of engravings, and they stared like a clock. He sent me to the cold store behind the inn, where the bear the laird shot in April still hangs by its hind legs, and told me to look until I stopped being afraid of it. I went at dusk with a lamp and a tin of ink. The fur smelled of rain and resin. I sat with it for an hour, and when I finally drew the eyes again they came out heavy and tired, the way a grown man's eyes go after a long day.

I signed the corner with only my initials, A.M., hidden in the thickest stippling where the fur drops into shadow. Mr Ferrier asked why I didn't sign properly. I told him nobody reads a bear's corner. He laughed and paid me in silver, which I have spent on coal and a pair of boots, though I still think of the bear when the stove goes out. Write back and tell me the frost has not reached you yet.

Your loving sister, Ellen